We View A Great Learner As...

'Organisation Time' is the name we give to the 8.30am - 8.55am period before school starts. We are conscious in Room 14 of the importance of being organised, and having the time to get organised, and the positive effect this has on getting us in the right space for learning.

When we arrive in the classroom each morning, there may be a short task (often optional) for us to complete before school begins, along with the expectation that we use this time to organise our stationery, make sure our devices are charged, check in on our weekly goals, etc.

Last Friday during organisation time we had a task to complete. We were each asked to write down what we believe are the 3 most important traits of a great learner in Room 14. All of the words have been collated and are displayed in the word cloud below. Those that were mentioned more often appear larger.

It's interesting to think about what we see as important.

Is this is good set of traits? Are we missing anything really important? 

3D Model Of Aotearoa

This week many of us have taken on the challenge of sculpting a 3D map of New Zealand out of clay. We began by watching some fly-over videos of planes travelling around our coastlines. We then researched many of the land features that we would need to have visible in our sculptures (mountain ranges, major lakes, rivers, etc). These were all highlighted on a blank map, which we used as our design plan.

















Today we organised our workspaces and started sculpting. We will try to tweet some pictures as we finish, as well as uploading pictures to our digital portfolios.

Land Yacht Racing

Today was the day that we lined up our land yachts for our final races.

As part of our syndicate inquiry rotation, children coming to Room 14 have been designing and building land yachts. For some of us, we were able to build on our knowledge from the kites we built in Term Two.

As with the kites, we researched forces on a land yacht, planned our designs, organised materials, constructed various prototypes, and tested them.

Check out some footage of our races today. A few crashes and swirling winds, but an enjoyable day celebrating what we've created.

CanSail Trip

This morning we had an exciting adventure on Lyttelton Harbour. Our Year 5s went sailing aboard STV Fox II, a 54' gaff-rigged ketch. The boat was first launched in 1922 and is one of the oldest sailing vessels in New Zealand.

We enjoyed the thrill of crewing a small ship. Fox II required several of us on each line, needing coordinated crew-power to haul on the sheets and raise six sails. This was a great activity for raising awareness of leadership skills and responsibilities in a team, which are key understandings we are looking to develop in our Year 6 students for next year.

Another highlight was being humoured by the hard-case instructors!

Our trip took us on a return voyage from Naval Point Yacht Club (Lyttelton) to Diamond Harbour.

Woodend Camp 2014

What an amazing time we had at Woodend last week.

We spent three days challenging ourselves, developing new skills, working together and creating great experiences we may never forget.

This week we will be putting together a collaborative camp journal and reflecting on our experiences for our portfolios ahead of our 3-way conferences in Week 4.

We would like to say a special thanks to our Room 14 parents, Bryan, Shane and Tobi, who accompanied us.

Exploring Our Passions

Running alongside our syndicate inquiry rotation this term, our in-class focus has been centred around passions.

Last week we spent much of our time exploring how our passions can open up a world of possibilities and interests for us. We decided that when we are learning around our passions we often feel like we are not 'working' at all. This linked well with our recent understandings of how a 'Growth Mindset' is so important for us to possess if we are to develop to our full potential.

Our investigations into others' passions and where they have taken them was eye-opening. This video in particular stood out as an example of someone who has truly found what it is that motivates and excites them.

The next stage for us was to do some inward reflection and engage in open discussions about our interests. We've done this sort of thing right through our school lives, but this time our objective was to decide on a topic or area of interest that could provide a spark for us to begin an inquiry journey.

We grouped our passions into five broad topic areas. Each of these areas were given a 'conversation zone' around our classroom, a place where we could go to speak to others informally about our passions and look to potentially form smaller inquiry groups with like-minded people.

The process for project creation has required considerable scaffolding from Mr K, as the deep understandings from our theme this term need to be central to what we do. The enterprise, innovation and creativity aspect of this theme provides us with a huge scope for exploration. The big question we are considering is - 'How can I improve?'. Each of us have now developed a plan for a project that we will be working on, already outlining the research, design and initial creation aspects of what we are doing. Most of us are working in groups, although a couple of us have decided to pursue an independent project.

Over the course of the term we will be documenting what all of our groups are up to via Twitter, but here is a sneak peak at what a few of us have planned:

• Jessica and Lily are taking a out a small financial loan from our school Enterprise Group (which Lily is a part of). They have started in discussions with Barb, our school support worker, to begin contacting local food suppliers to put together a product (or products) that they could use for a whole-school lunch day that they are planning.
• Julie, Ellee, Chloe and Maia are using their individual strengths to design and create a school magazine, with some very exciting features, that they are planning to release fortnightly for the rest of the year.  

Failing Forward

Our main inquiry theme this term is called 'Innovation, Enterprise and Creativity'.

As well as investigating technological design and processes, we will also be making links between this theme and the traits that great learners possess. Many of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and creative individuals have failed many times before developing an idea or concept that positively changed their life and that of others. The fact that these people were able to pick themselves up in the face of adversity and find new possibilities may well have been their most powerful trait. Some people refer to this as 'failing-forward'.

Take a look at this clip about Alex Zanardi...


TOUCH THE SKY from tim hahne on Vimeo.

Can we pinpoint exactly what it was inside of him that made him find a new passion, even after being through an horrific accident? Why would he possibly be happier now?

Could this be a common theme with many successful people? How many other people can we find out about whose ability to fail-forward was a key part of their success? And finally... So what? What does this mean for us and what connections can we make?

Sharing Home Learning - Term Three

It was great to see the enthusiasm shown while we shared our home learning from this term. As with the previous two terms, we have had options to undertake many open-ended projects off-site. Our session this morning was our best so far, with children showing a lot of confidence in their own work, as well as support and encouragement of others.

Dodgeball

Here is the video we presented in assembly today that documents our dodgeball journey this term. It highlights the challenges we have faced around decision making in groups.

We've had to make lots of decisions that tested our ability to compromise and take instruction for our peers. As we reflect more deeply about this, we will be starting to think about decision making and governance in our wider community. The timing of this is fitting with our general election approaching. How could our classroom experiences affect how we feel about our electoral system?

Note: The boys insisted on the State of Origin style team intros!

Geometry - Position and Orientation

We have a focus on geometry this term. If you've been following our Twitter, you would have noticed the work we have been doing with shapes.

This week we've been looking at position and orientation. Today we discussed times in our lives when we have used maps. When talking about travel maps in particular, we highlighted the grid patterns we often see and how these help us to pinpoint specific locations.

Our challenge today was to set up a scene (using toy animals from the junior school, maths equipment and other items we could find) and write a description so that others could try and recreate our scene.

We needed to use the co-ordinates as well as compass directions in our descriptions. This video has a few snippets of our work this morning.


What would happen if we wrote instructions for the reader to rearrange the pieces? Would that change the language we might use? What new knowledge might we need?

Our Vision For 2014

Today we reflected on the first half of 2014 and have begun looking forward to the rest of the year. We thought about many aspects of our learning and our personal growth. We discussed some questions that made us think carefully about ourselves and we had others give us feedback on our responses. We also learned about the difference between a fixed-mindset and a growth-mindset.

After some honest discussions, we went away and planned out a pathway (literally) for the rest of the year. The video shows how this looks, but the main idea was that we were answering four questions...
1. What skills and attitudes do you really need to develop?
2. How do you want to be thought of by others at school (your peers and teachers)?
3. On the last day of school, how do you want to feel about your year and what memories do you want to have?
4. Year 5: What responsibilities do you want to have in year 6? Year 6: How do you want to be remembered at Bromley School?

We will be referring to our work today when we plan and evaluate our weekly goals. How might today affect the decisions we make?

Sharing Our Home Learning

We shared our home learning for the term this afternoon. At the beginning of term we each received a list of possible open-ended tasks/projects that we could attempt. These spanned across several curriculum areas, while also giving us a chance to design personal interest projects.

It was great for many of us to share our own learning today, but it was also interesting to discover what direction others had taken with theirs.

Kites Inquiry - Part Three

Is it just a Christchurch thing that we won't get a lot of wind in Winter time?

We've only been able to get outside once or twice with suitable kite flying conditions. Most of us have finished our kites, but we just need to collect flight evidence and finish our documentation.

Despite some weather frustrations, it has been a great inquiry. We've learned a lot, not only about physical forces and change, but also about planning, managing and documenting a personal investigation.

Here's some footage we've collected so far. We'll post more media when we can...

Time - Filling In The Gaps

This term we've looked at several types of measurement. In many ways, improving our knowledge of measurement has helped us to gain a better understanding of our inquiry investigations.

One thing we know we can measure is 'time'. However, with some honest discussion we've found that some of us really struggle to tell the time, while a large number of children have no problem with it at all. This is before we've undertaken many specifically 'time-related' maths investigations this year.

While we had a multi-strand problem solving challenge set up this morning for most children, we also had a couple of special groups running. These groups were run by individual children who considered themselves 'time experts'. Any children who felt they needed to fill in some knowledge gaps and had some questions they wanted answering were able to 'drop-in' to these special groups.

Judging by our conversations afterwards, the groups were valuable to those children who opted in to them. Some interesting questions were raised that could lead into great inquiries alone (e.g. "Why don't we just have ten hour days?" - It would make things easier, wouldn't it?).

Learner response: How does being able to tell the time enable you as a learner?

Kites Inquiry - Part Two

Simple Machines

Check out our video from Friday's assembly. We've been investigating simple machines. How could what we have learned help us to make predictions about a machine many of us know very well?

Learner Licences

These play an important part in developing a culture of learning in our classroom. They allow us to identify learning role models, as well as giving us a clear vision of what great learners do.

Learner licences are not necessarily for 'high-achieving' children. They recognise those who always display a love of learning and attitudes that we truly value. Their peers have identified them as having these characteristics. An achievement to take great pride in.

Task: Collaborating

This week we've been asking questions about celebrations and festivals around the world. After discussing traditional kiwi celebrations and our experiences, we've been looking into other cultures with the hope of making connections between the purposes of their celebrations and our own (and with each other).

We're very lucky to have a diverse group of learners in our class. Listening to stories of cultural traditions in Afghanistan, the United States and the Pacific Islands from Shukoor, Logan, Kyan and Matthew has provided a great insight into celebrations around the world. It has also given us ideas for questions we would ask about others that we research. Thank you boys for your input.

Collaboration has also been a focus for us in our research. This is a graphic we've been discussing with regards to this...


It tells us that collaboration is about working together to achieve something. Sometimes we aren't doing the same thing when we collaborate. Sometimes it is better to be finding out different things and have different jobs, then come together and communicate what we have learned to create something great as a team.

Over the coming weeks, we will be reflecting on and investigating how we can better collaborate.

TASK: Watch the video below. It features a remake of a popular festival in Europe. Can we work together to gather lots of information about this festival? See what you can find out and leave a comment (think WWWWWH).

If you see that someone has already mentioned what you were going to say, challenge yourself to find some new information!